[EVENT] Bonfire Night

[ironwood]

Characters: ALL!
Date: February 21st
Location: Various.
Situation: It’s cold. Time to cuddle up and make bonfires for the warmth.
Warnings/Rating: Add warnings as needed.

As night falls the city’s lights take something of a unique turn. Instead of being lit by millions of paper lanterns, Keeliai is tonight lit by the flames and warmth of dozens if not hundreds of fires. Some of them are small, not much more than warming hearths in a barrel on a street, but others encompass squares and boulevards.

The fire lighting procession winds through the city’s streets, beginning at the first bonfire in Fire Sector. By the time full night has arrived, that procession is a snake illuminated by dozens of torches, parting from the main parade to light smaller fires in smaller streets. It ends, finally, in Central, in the Courtyard of Public Opinion, whose bonfire is second only to the initiating one in Fire Sector.

In some areas an exchange of goods arises, mostly in terms of woollens and other warm clothes and blankets. Though food is considered a public resource on this occasion, bartering small knickknacks, songs, stories and even other woollen items is not uncommon an exchange.

Meals are shared among kedan and Foreigners, commoners and emissaries--primarily stews, soups and other foods easily baked in the coals of the fires. Everyone brings food, and what isn’t contributed to the pot is nevertheless shared around after preparation. Although some bonfires are markedly wealthier than others, food and shelter is spread around to make sure everyone is safe and warm. No one goes cold and alone on this night.

---

LINKS
Fire Sector (main bonfire) | Water Sector | Metal Sector | Earth Sector | Wood Sector | Central Keeliai

OOC Notes
The five Bresilykian emissary NPC can be found moving from Sector to Sector and partaking in the various traditions of each, and so can be engaged anywhere, while the Keeliai NPCs generally are staying in their respective areas as detailed below. Please put the name of the NPC you're requesting in the subject line of your tag if you want to interact with them. Thank you!

Comments

[denyamenti]

"Only the interesting ones," the thief affirmed. If Xuiyu expressed interest, he'd be willing to elaborate a little more on the Hinotama, but his experience largely in Keeliai had been that people wanted less specifications and more general 'it's magic'.

"No doubt you are," he said agreeably. To their left, a fire in one of the contained bins flared, and his eyes tracked it for a moment before returning to the woman across from him. He was at ease but not relaxed, and his choice of seating kept the fires in the immediate area within his field of vision.

"She doesn't seem the type to be overly sentimental."

[forgediron]

All Xuiyu cared about was whether the person talking knew their damned job. Since Bakura did, she felt no desire to ask--though that would have been the same if she was asking a carpenter his trade, or something equally mundane.

She grunted, regarding him over the lip of her mug. "Depends on what's poking her. Are you going somewhere with this courtship, or are you just grazing? 'Cos if so, it'll cost you at least another drink."

[denyamenti]

"If you want me to get you another drink, you only have to say so. But to your question, yes, I have a point to it: the Metalworkers are the one faction in this city who are actually getting things done. Yunxu's too busy fluffing his feathers and hoping the emissaries notice him, and the Woodsmen are trying so hard to be insular that they're practically seceding from the species. Hardly the stage for Zanru to be as brooding and short-tempered as she has been, according to anyone who's spoken with her in the last month."

He raised his mug and tapped it against hers like a toast, matching the way she watched him over its rim. "And she spends a lot of time in gambling houses, for someone who isn't in dire straits to make some quick cash. My point is: if there were some internal strife in the Metalworkers, you'd all be getting less done, not more. That's not the case, so it's likely a problem elsewhere. And as I like having at least something functioning at capacity in this city, it's in my interests to fix problems like that."

[forgediron]

"Out of the pragmatism of your heart, hm?" she said dryly, but amused. Xuiyu liked the man. He was canny and smart, but got down to brass tacks when it matter. Xuiyu rather liked brass tacks. They were classy, and useful for non-lethally sticking in people when they were being stupid.

"You need to take a closer look at the Woodsmen," she told him anyway. "The Merchant's Guild has a bug up its collective ass about it, but the Woodsmen control a lot of the prices in the city. If it weren't for them those prices would still be inflated for you lot. Can't say you're wrong on the ground-pecking peacock, though."

She settled back against her patch of wall, eyeing him thoughtfully. "Like you said, we're still functioning well. Given that and the fact you're only interested to make sure the function happens anyway, why the hell should I tell you anything?"

[denyamenti]

"Pragmatism and the expectation of a favour, somewhere down the road." There wasn't any point in obfuscating on that point; it wasn't as though he was trying to appear altruistic either. Being upfront about it made sense, especially with someone like Xuiyu.

"As for why: because you're not following your cousin around hoping she takes your input on who has the best bonfires. Whether she knows or cares, you're doing it to keep an eye on her. You don't do that if you're just expecting her to snap out of a bad mood on a whim. You do it when you're worried things will get worse before they get better."

[forgediron]

He was honest about it, Xuiyu would give him that. Usually when they were honest about it they knew who they were, whereas someone like the Stark boy was well-intentioned but significantly more unthinking.

"I'm not following her," Xuiyui grumbled, "I'm being dragged along. Ever occur to you that she lost someone to the old nightmare and she misses 'em on nights like this?" It wasn't a lie, but it was the most Xuiyu was willing to say regarding the specifics. She didn't want to get punched again.

The palace demolition, though ... that was making things a little bit tricky.

[denyamenti]

"Has it occurred to me," Bakura echoed, glancing around the fire-lit plaza with the instinctive need to know where every blaze was, at all times. He didn't have the familiar, comforting buffer with which he could relax that his ghosts had given him. "More than you know. There are a lot of old nightmares in this and other worlds."

[forgediron]

"There you are, then," Xuiyu said with a shrug, and drained his mug, and clunked it next to Bakura. "More talk, more drink, 'kay?" She felt warm and relaxed, far more so than was attributable to the fire. Finally; this was the good part of drinking.

[denyamenti]

"As you say," Bakura inclined his head, accepting the dismissal of the topic. He matched Xuiyu's shrug, emptied his own mug, and stood to retrieve two more. The idea had been offered, and the Metalworker would either consider it later or she wouldn't; pressing the issue now would only worsen his chances, not better them.

He drank slower from the second mug, for the first one had warmed him well. "This is good," he said, peering into the liquid. "At least it's got some body to it. Too many drinks anymore are thin as piss."

[forgediron]

"I like you," said Xuiyu, taking the drink and a long drink, and sinking further back into her seat. "You have good priorities. The Woodsmen put limits on barleys and honey and everything else, so the really good stuff is hard to find."

There were other ways to get drinks, of course, but liqueurs were way too much like drinking water, in Xuiyu's opinion. No taste. No body.

[denyamenti]

"Ah, we all have our faults," Bakura smirked, when Xiuyu declared that she liked him. "But I suppose I'll take it."

He nodded with understanding -- genuine, not feigned -- when she spoke about how the Woodsmen were able to manipulate effects far beyond simply crops and land. Truthfully, Keeliai's reliance on the farms outside of the city wasn't all that different from the way major cities in Egypt had relied on the yields of the delta lands.

Before he could ponder too much more on that similarity however, applause and cheering came from the fires, and he saw that Zanru had finished judging the winner. He smiled knowingly, getting to his feet and taking his mug. "Speaking of priorities, I'll let you get back to yours. Thank you for hearing me out."

[forgediron]

Xuiyu grunted and flapped her hand at him, more interested in her mug than in his absence. "I won't say no to some explosions if your critter gets bored," she said, "but I won't be held responsible for anyone getting hurt if you do it wrong."